Have you seen the Cubs with and without him? Again, he is a leadoff hitter putting up these numbers. Yes, and who cares? If Lou decided to put him in the 5 spot and he put up the same numbers, would he be less of a candidate for MVP? If Houston decided Berkman should leadoff games, would that make him a better candidate for MVP? What a team does over the first 24 games a player returns from injury is a completely meaningless bit of trivia that has absolutely nothing to do with MVP voting. Just look at the record for the entire year with and without him.